Just trying to hang on

by grant

Rebekah is 23 weeks pregnant. She has started to have contractions and is having trouble taking care of the kids. No fun. We think we have some contingency plans worked out, but they will definitely increase the stress of daily life, but they are necessary so that Rebekah can get by.

So, one boy and one girl on the way. they're growing good. the boy only has 1 artery in his umbilical cord which happens a lot but still isn't too thrilling since it can mean problems later.

anyway, work is scary but I still have my job so I'm thankful. For the Christians out there, we could really use your prayers. It's only by God's grace that we can get through these things without (me) snapping. For the skeptics out there (matt) find us a nanny that will work for free.

Twins 2: This time its personal

ok, for anybody who is still reading this (rss feeds keep you from totally abandoning it. check out google reader or bloglines.com), I'd like to announce that we are having
1 boy and
1 girl!

yay! 3 and 3. 4 and 4 if you count the parents. We have a female cat, so I guess we need to get a male dog soon.

The twins are growing as expected so that's good. The umbilical cord on the boy has only two channels instead of the normal 3, but that's not too abnormal. Titus was that way. The girl had a shiny spot on her heart, but they've seeen that a lot but never known it to mean anything. The C-section will be scheduled for the 37th or 38th week of the term. So that means a late April or early may birth if all goes according to plan. Rebekah is doing ok... but she's doing less and less and having a harder and harder time. I think she'll be on bed rest for the last few weeks.


The other kids are doing ok. I'm slightly mad at times because I have less patience and the boys are not cooperating like I need. The girls are pretty good. They're dolls most of the time, but they have attitudes that have to be corrected. Also, sometimes they (individually) are very fussy and nothing consoles them.

We're still not sure about transportation. we don't have 8 seats in our Durango and even if we did, car seats take too much space. We can't trade our Durango in because an SUV is worth about as much as a bucket of warm spit. We still owe a lot on it, and it's lost way more value than normal. So, we're considering lots of options.

I am doing ok, been having more pain in my wrist. I think it's a pinched nerve in my neck. I had Carpal tunnel surgery and it didn't help. I went to a neurologist last week and he had the gaul to say that carpal tunnel was my problem. It doesn't make any sense. He said the only other thing could be was a pinched nerve in my neck. I've done research and it turns out that you can have pain anywhere in your arm and NOT in the neck with a pinched nerve in your neck. It fits better than anything else that I've read.

Work is still work. They cut our pay 5% which is painful. But we're hoping that between that and agressive cost cutting, they can ride out the storm. At the very least, I think that the WG should be able to outlast many of its competitors. Bad (and sad) for them, but good for us.

I'm shocked! shocked I say...

by Grant

...to read this morning that somebody doesn't like Obama. Al Qaeda is bad mouthing him and calling him names. Next thing you know Hamas and Hezbollah (sp?) will say that he has bad breath or something. I say we bomb al qaeda back to the stone age. Oh wait, we already did that.

Wow

by Grant

  Ok, so there isn't really a lot more to say about the beta twins (Liberty and Serenity are the Alpha twins). Rebekah hasn't been back to the Dr. yet, so we don't have any more info. She's just past her first trimester, but she's still pretty miserable. I'm glad this is our last time around the maternity block.

Forrest made me dinner tonight. Peanut Butter and honey. Our food stash has gotten rather empty of late. I've been busy trying to help at the church as well as scrounge up some other work. My pay is being cut 5% as of January 1, 2009. I can't afford that except by putting my 401k contribution to 0%. So, that's unfortunate. But in some ways, I am relieved. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The housing market is 1/3 of where it was at its peak 2 years ago. Our company is getting about 50% of the revenue it did two years ago. Wildly enough, there has not been so little new housing starts in the past 50 years. This is the worst it ever has been. Where have all the people gone? Don't they have to live in houses? I checked my trees and nobody's hanging out there. I mean, even if things are bad now, there should still be people getting married (for the first time) and needing a house so somebody gets something in the divorce. I mean, if all you have to fight over is who gets the dog it sounds a lot more petty. But I digress. Our family is doing well. As you can gather from the earlier statements, Forrest is a great help (when he wants to be). He likes being responsible but sometimes he finds it a drag. Well, I find it a drag much of time so I can't fault a 5 year old too much. He helped Rebekah a lot when she was sick the other day. I couldn't come home because we had the shoe drop meeting and attendance was required. So Forrest made cereal and fed the girls crackers and yogurt (or something like that).

I spent some fun time looking for a new vehicle this week. Today especially was fun. Rebekah wanted a Ford Excursion, AKA Land Yacht, since it had the room we need plus room for groceries. Alas, we are upside down on our Durango due to the severe devaluation of SUVs. But, since the car guys are semi-desperate I thought I'd see if they'd do anything. Their offer was so amusing (offering me 50% of trade in value on my Durango) that I laughed. Finally after a bit, they said "What can we do to make this deal happen?" I said, "Make pigs fly." He chuckled until he realized I was serious. It was an amusing experience. Our Durango is really nice and comfortable, but since it can only hold seven I guess we'll have to just drive two vehicles if the whole family goes anywhere. That's ok. that way I can listen to rock or some such heathen music while Rebekah indoctrinates our children with something wholesome. I see it as a win-win, don't you?

Breaking News!

by Grant

Rebekah is pregnant with twins again! Thankfully they are in separate sacks. And no, we don't know the gender.


More to follow if the blogger isn't too depressed.

Beka's Birthday

by Grant

  So, it's Rebekah's birthday today. We have a friend who is going to come over tonight and watch our kids for us. That's really nice. We won't do anything too fancy. I thought about taking her to a movie, but nothing looks good which is good because an adult ticket costs $9!!! Holy cow. Do people still go to movies? We finally got a big TV this year and I bought a Dolby Digital amp from a friend and so we have a really nice home entertainment system. It's pretty darn close to a theater experience. Plus the concessions are cheaper.

Pretty fascinating watching the Stock market implode. Amazing what fear can do to people. But you know the old saying "buy low, sell high." It's low now. record low. It'll probably still go lower, but I personally think it will be one of two things. 1: It'll go so low that we have a major worldwide depression in which case you'll have bigger things to worry about. Or 2: it'll eventually hit a bottom and start coming back up. The one good thing I saw about friday is that some financial stocks actually went up. Most of the drops were from other companies (like GM) that were now being affected. This sort of thing has to work itself out. The government has a role to play, but socialism is a dangerous threat if they do too much.

Ok, boring stuff I know.

Anothing boring note. Titus is up and he's watching Max and Goofy in "A Goofy Movie." I find it amusing that they're driving a pacer. The seats and the doorhandles look right too. Of course, pacer was made by AMC and they went out of business over 20 years ago. OH no! It just blew up. It made it through the entire movie and then blew up and Goofy kicked the bumper. Sheesh, it's not a pinto. Stupid Hollywood.

Toddler/Life update:

For those of you who don't know, Rebekah is pregnant again. I'm praying it's not twins or if it is, then they're in separate sacks. I have no idea how we're gonna pay for another kid, but I'm trusting in God to provide. The girls are doing great. Liberty seems much less fussy these days. I think she's done cutting teeth. But now the temperaments of both girls are more even. I'll try to post some more pictures on my next blog post.

Attack of the killer Oreos

Renny and Libby and Renny

 


The aftermath. Worse than Chernobyl





Who are these angels and what have you done w/ my children?


One put out little person





Liberty and Joey




Gratuitous Libby and Renny shot

Blog

Working on it! lots of pictures.

Family fun

by Grant

Some people think that a family activity is say, going to the zoo. Or if you're well off and and insane, going to Disneyland. I decided tonight that as a family we'd change the oil in our two primary vehicles. Of course, I'm excluding the girls as they don't seem to tolerate late nights very well. Actually, it's more like Mom doesn't tolerate them outside in the dark with vehicles on ramps, etc. etc. etc. So, Forrest and I got started and I put the truck on the ramp. That's always fun as you have to get just the right balance of throttle combined with instant braking at just the right time. I cheat. With a four wheel drive vehicle you have more pull at lower rpms, so it wasn't very hard. Of course, I had Forrest giving me directions which were interesting at the very least. So, by the time the truck was on the ramps my wonderful wife (no sarcasm) came out to help. This is after a rough night with little sleep before. So, I set about acquiring cardboard to lay on and sent Rebekah after tools and Titus to ride his tricycle. Forrest was upset because he was trying to help but I was not utilizing him properly so he was inventing things to do to help. So, I had to find ways to utilize his desire effectively and once I did that he was a great little helper. I remember helping my Dad and getting yelled at, ahem, motivated frequently. Not a lot of fun. So, trying to keep that in mind I'm rushing around trying to get the oil changed in two vehicles with two little ones somewhat underfoot as it's getting dark and late. But after a few minor issues (I ran out of 5w-30 oil. I'll have to get another quart tomorrow) we finished up. If it weren't for my pride and frugality I would pay to have my oil changed; but if I had done that my boys would've missed out on a great family activity. And just think, maybe if we do enough of our own oil changes we can use the money we save and go to Disneyland... Not!

Toddler/Life update:
Yeah, I don't think the girls are babies anymore. Rebekah wants another urchin to wake her up at night (although Titus is common visitor to our bedroom). I, on the other hand, am thinking about headin to a monastery. Ok, not really, but with stress at work I'm a little uncertain about more financial stress. At the WG they did another round of layoffs and I was hit by the arterial spray of one head-lopping so that made me a bit nervous. But, I'm trusting in God and doing my darndest not to worry about it. The girls have decided they're gonna start on the "terrible twos" a little early. So, we're working on tough love as one starts fussing and the other one isn't far behind.

Boring blog post 2

Hmm. so far so good. I reformatted one of my 500 gig drives to ext2 w/out LVM (still not sure what that is). Now, my driver in windows can read it. This effectively enables me to transfer my movies (vob files) to a drive that can be read in Windows. So far the only hitch in my git-a-long is that I can't get the vob files to play with digital 5.1 surround sound. The things I do for my kids. Do you think my girls will appreciate all the work I went to so they can watch Baby Einstein, do you? No. They won't. Ah well, such is life.

Boring blog post -- Don't read

I warned you.

I am working on our media center right now. Various children are running around while I'm trying to concentrate on how to create a partition and format a drive so that it's non-lvm so my ext2 driver in Windows can read it so I can get data off of it. Yeah. I didn't understand it either. To start @ the beginning, It all started a few months after the girls were born back in Spring of 07 (pronounced "ot" seven). I discovered that over the previous few months the demon spawn, ahem, I mean sweet angelic children had destroyed some expensive DVDs. So, I decided to rip all of my DVDs to a computer and then the munchkins wouldn't even touch them. In attempt to save money, I decided to recycle (how green of me) a computer that we were disposing of @ work. I took that and bought a few pieces and installed Linux w/ a Media Center preconfigured (called MythTV). Well, after a month and a half of working on it (that sounds like a long time, but with kids that's highly efficient) I had a working system that I was proud of. It served us well for a year and then it started acting flaky. I think that it realized that I had decided to replace it with a newer and shiner (albeit more expensive) media center. So, although I had been hemming and hawing, I have begun moving from Linux to Microsoft Vista. This is hard for me. Linux is the geeks toy. If you know what you're doing, then Linux is for you. Newbies get Mac (although that's changing) and hum drum go Windows. Well, tragically, Linux and my install just wasn't making me happy anymore. It lacked flash. It was single tasking (by this I mean that once I started a movie I was no longer in the media center program). It was awkward (set up lirc sometime and you'll see what I mean) and I was frustrated because I couldn't watch various shows that are streamed online (like Lost, although Heroes (NBC) does work).

So, now that I'm done waiting, I guess we'll see how the next step goes.

BTW, in case you're interested in family stuff, I am trying to keep my mind off things because life is just too frustrating right now. Hence the warning about the blog post being boring.

May you live in interesting times

by Grant

That saying (look up) is supposedly an ancient chinese proverb (my book of insults says it's Irish but everybody else says Chinese... eh). It's actually a curse. Interesting times are usually interesting because they're scary. Times of prosperity and and peace are not interesting. I read the Wall Street Journal and I've discovered that I'm intently interested in the domestic financial news. I'm watching Oil futures and reading about the Bank and mortgage woes. Horribly boring stuff except when you look at the price of gas and ponder whether you (or your neighbor) will have a job tomorrow. I work for a company that is 90% domestic housing driven and it's been ugly. I think that we've hit the bottom and it's leveled off, but it's been a wild ride. Thankfully, sometimes you don't know that you're on a roller-coaster until you're half-way done w/ the ride. I haven't blogged in a bit because I've felt a lot of stress from many different sides and didn't want to start whining on the Internet. It's tough to not fret (although I am the first to admit that worry has no benefits) when I look at our budget (yes, we actually have a budget) and see that without major changes (such as selling a car or finding a different job) we can't take any more expenses. Of course, it's at times like this that we get hit with improperly billed medical expenses and find out that we won't get any bonus in the next year and by-the-way you only get 2% pay raise this year no matter how good or bad you performed. Hmmm... that sounds a lot like complaining. Yeah, I think it probably is. God promises to meet our needs. Our pastor said that was "food, clothing and shelter." You mean that doesn't include cell phone and gas?? Well, God frequently meets those "needs" too, but I think it's vital to remember that we Americans have expanded "need" to include so many things. Well, hopefully that wasn't too painful.

Family/life update:
Girls are growing and getting even more fun. They're a blast to play with. Serenity is a super ham and Liberty is almost always demure and graceful. Although, both Rebekah and I were laughing loudly at Liberty as she did her best to imitate a drunk dinosaur (the kind on the Flintstones). I'm not sure where she got that from, but I wish we could've gotten a video of it. A friend from church gave us a print-out of a "permission to date your daughter" application. It was obviously a joke, but I made a mental note to find it when our girls get that age (30).

And remember, keep smiling.
(10 points if anybody knows who "Mr. Kidsel" was on the "Burns and Allen" radio show)

A Saturday to Remember

By Grant


We had some pretty ambitious plans for yesterday, but our day started out with sadness. Our dog of 7 years, Koffee, got hit by a car and killed. I knew it was going to happen because in the past year she had started going across the road to a farmer's field. We saw her almost get hit I don't know how many times. But just a week ago she also started using the carpet as her bathroom as well. After the 5th or 6th time we stopped letting her spend the night indoors and it was that event that precipitated her death. She got hit early saturday morning before we were even out of bed. I feel a bit guilty because I know that If I had been able to train her better, etc. we might have avoided this. But, with four kids and a full time stressful job plus church frequently and involvement it was pretty much impossible to spend more time with the dog.

whew! I just got interrupted by a screaming Liberty who was falling out of her chair under the table because I didn't buckle her in.

Back to the sad story...
So, I took the wheelbarrow across the road (dodging cars) and got her. I made Rebekah stay behind because she couldn't promise that she wouldn't cry. Well, if she started crying then I might and I didn't need that. One of those things that you have to be tough about and just accept with a tinge of regret. I then spent the next hour digging a grave with Rebekah and we laid river rocks on top of it. And even though I don't believe animals have souls, I still prayed a prayer thanking God for the good times she gave us and the protection she provided our house.

I'd like another dog, but I need to find one that's not too energetic and is good with kids. And I am going to get our place fenced in soon to prevent this from happening again. If you have any dog recommendations, please let me know.

Random Pictures 1

Stupid trees. That's the second time a big branch has hit that power line



no idea. beka took these 2


@ Grandpa's house

Naked came I

by Grant


    Now that I have your attention. Let's begin.
(Just in case you're interested, that's from the Bible  (Job 1:21 to be precise). It's also (quite ironically) the name of the autobiography of Opus the Penguin from Bloom County. Unless you're my Mom or brother, I'm quite sure you don't know what or what that is. Although, if you strain your membrane a bit, you may remember a fat penguin in the funny pages (particularly Sunday) named Opus. Aaah, such fond memories. Moving right along...)

I promised myself I wouldn't apologize for not blogging since if there ain't nothing to blog ain't gonna blog (eloquent right). But I've had several things I've wanted to put down and haven't gotten to it. Mostly because I'm lazy, but having four wee ones plays a small part in monopolizing my time.


A few topics I've pondered include the "The refrigerator that could," "Two flew out of the Ballard's nest," "Memorial Madness," "Cheer up Buckeroo"

I guess I'll do "Cheer up Buckaroo" (BTW, I'm working on pictures too)

    This probably isn't too fascinating, but it's the shortest and most recent. I've worked at my current place of employ since 2001. During that time it's been tumultuous but most of my co-workers have been pretty static. The economy has been pretty hard on the good old WG so one of my buddies got laid off in January, another friend (not so much co-worker) got cut a couple months later, and now my cube-mate has moved on to greener pastures (or will in a couple weeks). Que Sera Sera (I hate French! Ooh, and if you're really observant you might notice that's a tautology. bonus points to whoever remembers what that is and who said it). So, who knows what else will happen. The frustrating things is a lunch buddy and commiserating buddy are gone and the work load has to increase. But, no time to feel sorry for myself as there's too much work to do. Oh, and if you're curious about the title (the buckeroo one), my buddy said that when he heard me sigh towards the end of the day. It's funny because he knew exactly the type of sigh and what I was sighing about. I guess you kind of get to know somebody after 5 years working next to each other.


Baby/Life update:
Girls are doing pretty good. A bit too fussy for me. I'm still bothered by the whole girl thing. Not that I don't love them or wish I didn't have them but rather I have been terrified in multiple fashions about how much impact the father has on his daughters. Not to mention guarding them from lecherous men w/out turning them into old maids. Yeah, I'm worrying a bit too soon maybe but it's never too early to start I always say. But they are cute little things and I have to be doubly sure they don't wrap me around their little finger (as the saying goes). Boys are doing great. Forrest is really growing. Sometimes I think he's more mature than the average guy. Not saying that means he's an angel (He's not) but there are many good traits that need nurtured. It's amazing how showing your child love is like giving a plant water and sunlight. They thrive with it. Yes, that's obvious I'm sure, but seeing it in action is much more powerful than words. And Titus, well, that kid has gotten out of more spankin's cause he's so darn cute. So many of the times when he's naughty it's because he is just curious. Anyway, I feel very blessed to have such a great family (and I'm not just saying that).

Mo's Day

by Grant

    Ah, Mother's day. It is always a fun day. I don't think that all mothers should be celebrated though. Don't shoot me yet! There are a lot of rotten ones out there. But with that said, there are a lot of great ones and even being a good one is fantastically hard. How do I know? Well, that's what everybody says for one. And for two, I had to play mother for several days this last week. Rebekah got horribly sick (strep) and was out of action for pretty much four days. That was a horrible experience for all involved. I had to stay home and take care of the kids which got on my last nerve after the second day. I didn't feel that great myself either, but I was a whole lot healthier than she was. I did my best and we all survived, but I am still recovering psychologically and Rebekah is still recovering physically. I have finally reconsidered having more children due to this experience, but Rebekah is still wanting a fifth. I think I'm getting too old for this though. Aah and Serenity has a double ear infection and a urinary tract infection. So, she's a wee bit crabby. Of course, everybody is still more sociable than me at my best.

BTW, is it legal to kill a bird on your property? a pheasant just walked by. Imagine, pheasant under glass. Eh. I think I prefer Chinese food.
Anyway, I think it's got to be very hard to be a mom. Typically stuck in the house, doing the same old routine day after day. Listening to all the fighting and squabbling and stuff. Listening to the complaints about the food (they're lucky they have food). etc. etc. etc. And even if you are keeping your children alive and fairly healthy, there's always other mothers that seem to be so much more "with-it" Ptooey. I spit on them! Something has to be sacrificed because there is not enough time and energy in the day to do everything. Something has to go. Frequently it is attention to your husband or a meaningful relationship with your children. So, let it be known that although I'm a pretty ogreish (not really a word) husband and father, I do love and appreciate my wife for all she does for me and our family. And of course, I love and appreciate what my own poor mother for what she had to put up with from four boys (we had a sister too, but she was the oldest and gone to college when I was still young).

What's with all the ability?

by Grant

    I am astounded by my children on a pretty routine basis. I'm not sure why, but I am. And I smile and nod knowingly when others exclaim their surprise at what their young'uns are doing. Forrest seems to have many of my abilities but Titus and Serenity seem to have music in their soul. Dancing and singing makes them so happy. They're both hams too. They pander to their audience. If they see something is funny they keep it up and if you start getting tired of it, they throw in a little variation so you can hardly tear your eyes away. I need to take some pictures, but alas I have not.

I am currently struggling with some sort of sinus/fluish thing. I guess all the kids had it and it body-slammed me yesterday. I am very grateful for aspirin/tylenol for the simple fact of fever suppression. I can take my fever down from "shivering under the covers" to "able to function with a grump level of 9." What's the top grump value, you ask? Not telling! But I normally run at grump level 6-7.

As far as my wrists/recovery, I am doing ok. I didn't realize it would take so long to heal and the pain is different than what expected. What did I expect? Not sure, but something different. My wrist is healing but after talking to others, I guess it can take a long time (didn't I blog that before?).

On a random political note, is anybody as annoyed about the upcoming presidential election as I am? I don't think anybody is happy no matter what your political persuasion. If you're a right-winger then you'd have to swallow hard to take McCain (especially if you're "religious right". He told us off good in 2000). If you're a liberal you might like Obama, but give me a break. He's been in a church that hates America (or at least the pastor does) for over 20 years. I heard him today and he said that he didn't take any spiritual (or otherwise) guidance from his Pastor. Well what the heck are you going to his church for?? Oh, and Hillary? Don't get me started, but suffice it to say that she lied about an obvious incident about being under sniper fire (like 10 years ago). Come on, at least lie about the stuff nobody can prove differently. I am reminded of a political cartoon from the late 70s (they didn't like Reagan... putzes). It stated, something along the lines of having to choose from the "evil of two lessers" (for those of you that are slow, that's a play on "lesser of two evils")

Funny Story

by Grant

    There I was, minding my own business. It was a warm sunshiney (not a word) day and I had just gotten off work and was headed to my Brother-in-law's house for dinner (I used to call it supper before my wife corrupted me). Since it was so warm, I rolled down my window just a bit (maybe a quarter of the way) and embarked on my 15 minute jaunt. There I was, minding my own business--woops, I already said that. Well, I was cruising down the highway between 55 and 60 (the price of gas has made me be very legal minded on speeding) and BAM! Unbelievable pain shot through my body. Wham! it just wouldn't stop. I weaved around on the road (mostly staying in my lane though) while I tried to figure out what was afflicting me. It didn't take me too long to realize that I had been stung, but the dang thing hadn't hit and run. He was a frickin' kamikaze. Ya know bees die when they sting, so I guess he decided that stinging me wasn't enough and he had to throw his whole not-dead-yet corpse at me and hang out on my mustache. I swear I heard him yell Banzai!

<sigh>

I finally grabbed his fluttering body w/ my right hand and threw him onto my passenger seat (good thing Rebekah wasn't there). I then pulled off the road and spent the next couple minutes yelling in pain every few seconds. The darn thing had stung me right below my right nostril. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a black speck on my mustache. It was the dastardly stinger! I saved it and took it and the still not-dead-yet bee to show Rebekah.

Well, after a few minutes most of the pain was gone. Just like any bee sting I guess. But the nice little post script is that for the next few days my upper lip became numb and swollen. I didn't think I was vain, but when you look like somebody punched you in the mouth, well... I guess I am.

Thankfully all is back to normal. But I have decided that all bees must die! I have become the Anti-Bee Avenger and have made it my mission to destroy bees everywhere. Armed with a blowtorch and a set of asbestos undies I will purge the scourge (ooh, that rhymes) of the bee hives throughout all of Christendom. Oh wait, I'm married and I have four kids. Never mind.

Blogged with Flock

Time races by

by Grant

    The girls are tottering around. Hair abounds on their heads. Forrest is turning into a little man and Titus is a real charmer. Seems like just yesterday that we were kidless, but those memories are getting more and more distant. A couple in our church has initiated divorce. They are a few years older than Rebekah and myself with three young girls. I think they were married 13 years. I always wondered how you could get divorced after being married that long. I think a big part of it is neglect. I'm sure years of ignoring each other and barely tolerating each other as well as fighting finally brought things to a head. And of course, there's always "happiness." If you're not "happy" then that is a reason to leave. I'm not condemning someone that gets a divorce. I'm just trying to understand it. I think that when you have kids one of the things that you risk is the closeness that you have with your spouse. Once you have children, your time and money is gone (Not that I remember having money before kids either). Without time or money, it's pretty hard to maintain a relationship with your significant other. I think it behooves us to keep in mind that any relationship takes work. Whether it's a good friend, a spouse (significant other), or with God (Buddha, Zeus, insert deity here). I tell ya though, it's pretty darn hard when you're tired out of your mind to find energy to work on a relationship. But all I know is that it's necessary.

Snapshot

by Grant

    Have you ever wanted to take a mental picture and burn it into your mind so you can remember it forever. Yeah, doesn't work too well. It seems like the things you remember are almost random or maybe totally traumatic. Watching our girls totter along is a "precious memory." I'm not sure why it seems more special--maybe all that neato uncertainty and stress we had before and after their birth. Anyway, we have some pictures but Rebekah is kind of a snob and won't make the effort to blog 'em. I'll see about doing them shortly.

Baby/Life Update:
    Girls are fairly healthy. Serenity is teething and very unhappy but generally we finally feel like we're through the winter woes. The boys are great and Titus I swear gets cuter every day. Forrest is turning into a little man and I can really have him help out and do things. One day I made him get wood for the stove all by himself. My left arm has been mostly worthless since the surgery and whenever I use it a little bit (to work) I seem to set my recovery back a couple of weeks.

So, not a lot of fascinating news but hopefully a little bit informative at least.